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Woman Jailed For Calling City Too Many Times To Report Drug Dealers
The NYPD is famous for their “if you see something, say something” policy. But a Bronx woman, 67, says she was punished by New York cops for reporting drug dealers in her neighborhood.
After Arles Cepeda, who lives in Castle Hill Houses, called the NYC “311” line “too many times” to report drug dealers, she was arrested and locked behind bars. Now she says she will file a federal lawsuit against the NYPD.
How many times is “too many?” She called 44 times during a stretch of 15 months. But she says she was making a point. She was reporting separate incidences of illegal activity all within that time period.
“I kept calling, but no one ever did anything,” Cepeda explained in an interview with the Daily News.
Cepeda says that her complaints to building management have been ignored, as have previous calls to 311 and 911. Most of the calls were about drugs, she explained.
Detective Theodore Stefatos, a narcotics investigator called her on Dec. 4, 2012 to tell her to stop calling them to report drug dealers, she says
Cepeda says that cops showed up after she called about the drug dealers lining her way in to her apartment. But when police showed up, the drug dealers dispersed. The cops said they didn’t see any drug dealers, so she was going to be arrested.
“I was handcuffed behind my back,” she explained, in tears. “And my neighbors saw me. I was so embarrassed.”
At the 43rd Precinct station, she was warned she would be institutionalized in a mental hospital if she continued to report the drug dealers.
“If you continue calling, I’m gonna take you to the pysch unit at Jacobi Hospital,” she recalled the detective saying. “He was very cruel to me.”
She was then charged with offering a false instrument for filing. Her lawyer, Samuel Cohen, says that the charge makes no sense. Cepeda made phone calls. She never filed anything in writing.
When they showed up to court, the whole thing was quickly thrown out. But that doesn’t change how she was treated, arrested, or threatened with institutionalization…. all for reporting crimes.
NYPD officials refused to comment when we asked them about this case.
http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/...g-city-too-many-times-to-report-drug-dealers/